Kakinada is often called the “Fertilizer City” of Andhra Pradesh. The city is home to two fertiliser producers: Nagarjuna Fertilizers[11] is the biggest urea manufacturer in coastal Andhra.
Another company, Godavari Fertilizers[12] owned by Murugappa Group, produces Diammonium Hydrogen Phosphate (DAP).
There are several coconut exporters in and around Kakinada to other countries.
The Murugappa Group-owned EID Parry (India) Ltd and Cargill International SA joint venture, Silk Road Sugars Pvt Ltd, has a port-based stand-alone sugar refinery in Kakinada with a refining capacity of 600,000 tonnes.[14][15] Reliance is also planning to set up a sugar mill.
Kakinada is the base for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s Eastern Offshore Asset. Several oil companies have Kakinada as a transit point for oil and gasoline shipments. Baker Hughes and Schlumberger are examples of the field development companies working on natural gas fields offshore the city. The Krishna Godavari Basin is considered to be the largest natural gas basin in India and significant discoveries of oil and natural gas were made by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation and Reliance, which has been producing around 60 mmscd of gas for the past two years from its prolific KG D6 block off the Kakinada coast. Reliance has an onshore terminal at Gadimoga village about 25 km from Kakinada to process and distribute gas to other parts of the country. Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation is also working on setting up a similar facility near Mallavaram village south of Kakinada.
Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) has built a 1,440 km pipeline from Kakinada to Bharuch (Gujarat) to transport 120 million cubic meters per day (mcmd) of natural gas from Krishna-Godavari fields owned by Reliance Industries[18] across India to the west coast.
In 2010, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board awarded the City Gas Distribution project for Kakinada city to Bhagyanagar Gas Limited, a consortium of GAIL and Hindustan Petroleum.The construction work is underway to supply gas to Kakinada city and the surrounding towns of Samalkot, Peddapuram and Pithapuram, thus making Kakinada the first city in Andhra Pradesh to get piped gas supply for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes along with Hyderabad and Vijayawada.
In 2002 several edible oil refineries established themselves in Kakinada and the refining capacity has touched 3000 tons per day. Kakinada port is facilitating the imports of crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil. Kakinada has an edible oil refining capacity of more than 3000 MTS per day. Major refineries are Acalmar Oils & Fats Limited (now, taken over by Adani Wilmar Ltd.), Ruchi Infrastructure, Nikhil Refineries Ltd, etc.
The Vakalapudi Industrial park in Kakinada has attracted investments worth over US$10 million from bio-diesel companies such as Reliance Industries, Naturol Bioenergy and Universal Bio Fuel.Andhra Pradesh has entered into a formal agreement with Reliance Industries for Jatropha planting. The company has selected 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land at Kakinada to grow jatropha for high quality bio-diesel fuel.
There are several small and large power plants in and around Kakinada. Spectrum Power Generation Ltd. has a 208MW power plant at Kakinada. In fact, it was one of the first Independent Power Producer in the country. The company is planning to expand the capacity to 1350 MW in phases. Tenders for the first phase of expansion to the tune of 350 MW have been called for recently.A 220 MW Power Station (currently being scaled upwards to 2400 MW at a cost of Rs 100 billion) owned by Reliance Energy Limited,and a 464 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant by GVK group are under operation at Samalkota (Kakinada Rural).All these private power plants supply electricity to the state’s transmission utility, AP TRANSCO, under a Power Purchase Agreement.GMR GROUP owns 220 MW Gas based barge mounted power plant in kakinada.
Kakinada is tier-II cities in India and in Andhra Pradesh where Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) had set up a facility in 2007.
Since the inception of the facility, several companies have started operations in this city and list is growing due to availability of highly educated workforce in the district.
About 36 companies are currently operating in Kakinada. Tech Mahindra will start their operations by 2013 Total turnover of IT/ITES from Kakinada is around Rs 150 million during the last fiscal year. Godavari IT Association of East and West Godavari districts (GITA) is an association of IT companies in the twin Godavari districts which is based out of the city.Some of the prominent IT companies that have set shop here are: Infotech Enterprises,a Hyderabad based multinational software company, Avineon Inc,an US based technology company that provides geospatial and engineering services,Firstobject Technologies,a prominent BPO firm, Krify,UK as well as India based Mobile Apps development company. There are also several small to mid-size software companies that operate in Kakinada which include, I pro tech.,Prominere Software Solutions Pvt Ltd,Myfam Technologies,3One Technologies,TrewPort Technologies,Aaspire Technologies,Traceout Technologies,ForeTell Technologies Private Limited,Mythrii Solutions,Nyros Technologies,Meconzee InfoTech and Software Services,Easty Solutions,etc.
Kakinada is home to Andhra Electronics Ltd.,[47] an electronic components manufacturing company, which started operations in 1977.
There are several auto and iron/steel ancillary industries in Kakinada, such as Sri Ramadas Motor Transport Limited and Sri Bhavani Castings Ltd.
Several rice mills exist in and around Kakinada and some of the rice is exported to other countries.
Kakinada is home to Decon Engineers,an fabrication cum machine shop, which started its operations in 1984. The company has developed since inception and today, they are “The Experts in Professional Engineering”. They have emerged as the goto place for any and all professional engineering services.